Endoscopic surgery has been gaining wide acceptance as an improved and cost-effective technique for conducting certain surgical procedures. In these procedures, various endoscopic devices are used; such as, trocars, Veress needles, clip appliers, stapling instruments, forceps, scissors, etc. The devices, and especially certain of the surgical instruments, are quite heavy and cause considerable packaging problems. This is also true for the devices and instruments used in standard surgery or open surgery. The package must insure that the instrument is maintained sterile during transportation and storage and remains that way until used. The package should be such as to make the instruments readily accessible and in a sterile condition when presented to the sterile operating site. This has required, in many instances, the use of thermo-formed plastic packages to hold the instruments. Often, a package will include a number of surgical devices. The package may include all the devices to be used in one specific endoscopic procedure. For example, a package may incorporate two or three trocars, various adapters for the trocars, obturators, sleeves, a Veress needle, forceps, scissors, a multiple clip applier and a stapling or fastening instrument. These packages become quite bulky and cumbersome to handle, and require that a non-sterile or circulating nurse open the package and then a sterile or operating room nurse remove the sterile contents.
Also, as can be appreciated, disposing of materials in hospitals, especially materials used in the operating room presents considerable problems to hospitals. In fact, certain materials, such as those used in the operating theaters, must be disposed of in what is termed "red bag" disposable. This requires that extra caution and care be used in disposing of such material which causes added expense for the hospital. Also, it is extremely important that materials disposed of in such a manner do not puncture the containers used for disposal. The thermo-formed packages, especially those containing a plurality of instruments or devices have caused hospitals considerable disposal problems.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a package which is readily presentable in the sterile environment with a minimum of effort. It is an object of the present invention to provide a package that can be easily handled and reduces disposal problems. It is a further object of the present invention to provide packages which require less volume and, hence, less storage area and maintain the devices in a stable state throughout transportation and storage.